Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The Tulsa World reports that "The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution will present Woodrow Wilson Awards to Gov. Brad Henry, Lynn Schusterman and Henry Zarrow. The three will be honored at a dinner Feb. 12 at the Renaissance Hotel in Tulsa." Read full article here.

Monday, November 19, 2007

TULSA—Nearly 20 Oklahoma authors will again gather at historic Harwelden mansion just after Thanksgiving to give the public an opportunity to buy signed books as gifts for the holidays—and to help raise funds for the Tulsa Press Club Scholarship Fund.

The third annual Oklahoma, Ink., book fair will take place from 6-8 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007, at Harwelden, home of the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa, 2210 S. Main. This special event features a diverse array of Oklahoma authors (novelists, journalists, historians, children’s book writers and illustrators, among others) for a free public appearance and signing.

Glenda Silvey, anchor of The News on 6 noon news, is the honorary chair of this annual event.

This year’s authors are:Carl R. Bartholomew, Plane PhenomenonBart Borsky, Passing Gas and Getting Paid For It: The Musings of a Comic AnesthesiologistP.C. Castand Kristin Cast, Betrayed: A House of Night NovelConnie Cronley, Mr. Ambassador: Warrior for PeaceDavid Dary, True Tails of the Prairies and PlainsDavid Halpern, Pilgrim Eye and Tulsa Art DecoCarolyn Hart, Set Sail for MurderDavis D. Joyce, Alternative Oklahoma: Contrarian Views of the Sooner StateRandy Krehbiel, Tulsa’s Daily World: The Story of a Newspaper and its TownConstance Murray (wife of the late Danny Goble), Tulsa! The Biography of an American CityMel Odom, ExodusJim Stovall, The Ultimate LifeWill Thomas, The Hellfire ConspiracyMichael Wallis, Billy the Kid: The Endless RideLaurence Yadon, 100 Oklahoma Outlaws, Gangsters and Lawmen

Sponsors of this year’s Oklahoma, Ink., are the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, Cherokee Nation Enterprises, Krumme Oil Company and Tulsa Technology Center.

OU senior Andrea DenHoed has been named a 2008 American Rhodes scholarship recipient making her OU's 27th Rhodes scholar. A letters and international studies major from Aurora, Colorado, DenHoed plans to pursue a degree in English language and literature at Oxford. Congrats, Andrea! Read The Oklahoman story here.

The fall 2007 issue of Oklahoma State University's alumni magazine has an article on Maud Agnes Spear who was the first woman admitted to - and to graduate (1915) OSU's engineering program. The Women in Engineering House is known as Maud's Quad. I can't find a link to the magazine but it says she was born in Illinois Nov 15, 1892 to John and Catherine Spear. Her father taught in Native American children in government schools which eventually brought the family to Oklahoma. Both she and her sister, Mary, were active OSU (A&M back then of course)students. Maud took a job with an architectural firm in Milwaukee, WI and later moved to Washington, DC. There she met and married Leland Olds. They had 4 children. She continued to work as an architect and her husband had quite a career himself. She died in 1990 at the age of 97.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

I was on a panel with Pat Potts, Sonja Johnson Hughes, MD, The Honorable Vicki Miles-LaGrange and Beth Shortt November 10th as part of the Links 50th Anniversary celebration. Dr. Carole Hall Hardeman listed me as an "Advocate for Global Women's Issues" - no pressure there! :-)

For those of us not familiar with The Links and their many, many good works, The Links, Inc. is a national organization that was formed back when Junior League would not admit women of color. What an amazing group of women! The wonderful luncheon was held at Oklahoma Publishing Company.

I have had a surprisingly hard time shaking jet lag since returning from Kenya this time. But, I am taking myself off vacation and getting back to work as of tomorrow so expect a back log of posts!

Sorting through the pictures and video I took in Kenya in October, you'd think all we did was sit around and goo at the baby. But we DID actually get alot accomplished and I came home with a new task - putting down a floor in a classroom at the Kaaga Primary School so the room can become a small elementary school library/reading room. These kids don't have a diningroom; they eat on the ground except for during the rainy seasons (I guess they eat in the classrooms when it rains). But they'd rather have a library than a diningroom. Want to help me make that happen? If so, leave a comment or email me at jeanwarner at cox dot net.

(Read my most recent Kenya blog at http://merukenya2008.blogspot.com/ and Kate McLain's blog on the mission trip at http://kenyakatie.livejournal.com/. We lost Internet connection just about the time I flew home but I will finish posting about the mission trip from OKC over the next week and Kate will do the same as soon as she returns home next Friday.)

Above are pictures of the future library at Kaaga Primary School, the shack that serves as the school's "kitchen" and some of the kids. The school only serves food to the kindergarten students; the rest bring a lunch, go home for lunch, or do without.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

They say the young person looks forward, the older person looks back and the middle aged person looks startled.

This award is a bit startling; I am so overwhelmed by this honor and by the generosity of others . . . certainly those at the Oklahoma Heritage Association.

You know, I’ve had a lot of unexpected things happen in my life. Certainly the most unlikely was becoming Miss America. But as I’ve had the chance to glance back, I’m so impressed by the goodness of God’s grace to cover me---in good times and bad.

It was surely grace to be born in America and in Oklahoma, where the red earth holds you close and stains your soul, the wind teaches you to grow with deep roots and bend with hard times, and the sense of open space makes you believe in opportunities as big as the sky.

It was grace to be born to Pete, Helene and Judy and a whole pack of joyful aunts, uncles and cousins. What a gift!

To be raised in small rural communities, where every time you stepped up to the line, so to speak, you only had to glance over your shoulder to see a whole host of folks there applauding, urging you on, encouraging your success.

How grateful I am to have played basketball, grown up in the Church, entered pageants, sung on stages, studied with caring teachers, given the news, promoted Oklahoma and shared a friendship with so many of you.

It was grace to win a contest years ago that lifted up Oklahoma to a national spotlight for a moment in time. The greater grace was to share that honor with so many others who even today remind me of how that moment changed them in some small way.

I’m so grateful for a family that has always kept me grounded in life. I’ll never forget one Christmas when I came home following the Miss America year and commented to my family about how great it was to have main street in Laverne renamed Jane Jayroe Blvd. My nephew who was a senior at Laverne High School remarked, “Yeah, it’s really neat. Now, on Sat. night instead of dragging main, we drag Jane.”

I’m so grateful to my mother Helene Grace, who has taught by example the great joy that comes from living a life that values others more than self.To my sister, Judy, who learned that lesson better than anyone and her family of sons and their families. They are mine as well.

To my son Tyler and Elaine and their children. He has been my greatest joy.To my husband, Jerry; I’m so grateful for the person he is. This honor truly belongs to both of us.

To my OCU family, my Church of the Servant family, my family of precious girlfriends, my Esther Women family, and my family of volunteer organizations who have taught me leadership and service.

I have such a grateful heart . . . for all of life’s journey. Grateful, not in a superficial, cheery cheerleader kind of way, but in a faithful, trusting way that believes there’s more at work in the world than what the eye sees and that underneath the surface of circumstances is an anchor that holds firm.

So, tonight, I am especially thrilled to accept another moment of grace . . . an undeserved gift--- but so appreciated.I accept it on behalf of Oklahoma girls from small towns with big dreams.On behalf of those who fall down in life and by the grace of God stand tall again.And on behalf of all of us who are crazy in love with Oklahoma.

You know, God created us with a need to belong . . . to each other and to a place. . A land . . . home. . Oklahoma.

Friday, November 09, 2007

Last night was the 80th Annual Oklahoma Hall of fame Banquet and Induction Ceremony at Cox Convention Center. Miss America (Oklahoma's own) Lauren Nelson sang. Nurns Hargis and Mike Turpen serves as Masters of Ceremonies. Governor Brad Henry did the close (with a choir humming behind him - was it God Bless America?). But the reason we were all there (and there were a LOT of us!) was to hear the introductions of and remarks by the inductees. Honored this year (and - in parentheses - who they were introduced by) were OKC businessman and Sonics basketball team owner Clayton Bennett (National Basketball Association Commissioner David Stern), former Miss America, television news anchor and and past director of the Oklahoma Department of tourism and recreation Jane Jayroe Gamble (founder of Church of the Servant Rev Norman Neeves), singer/song writer Toby Keith (former Supreme Allied Commander/Europe General James L. Jones), former chair of Oklahoma Natural Gas Company David Kyle (former president and CEO of Noble Corporation James C. Day), educator and "mother of the civil rights movement" Clara Luper (Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Tom Colbert), chair and CEO of Chesapeake Energy Corporation Aubrey K McClendon (businessman and philanthropist Breene Kerr), Choctaw Nation Chief Gregory Pyle (US Congressman Dan Boren), and renowned conductor, composer and Broadway and off-Broadway music director (including currently "The Color Purple") Linda Twine (1984 OK Hall of Fame inductee research psychologist Gloria Twine Chisum). More on these remarkable Oklahomans later . . .